wXw 16 Carat Night One
With technical difficulties having delayed the release of the first night of the 16 Carat Gold Tournament, I have been able to skillfully dodge pretty much all spoilers whilst waiting with baited breath for the show to drop. The biggest tournament in Europe; the Turbinenhalle; 16 viable competitors; one trophy – 16 Carat Gold begins!
Axel Dieter Jr. versus Marius Al-Ani
With an opening match featuring the WWE NXT superstar returning to his hunting ground against your current Shotgun champion, the question instantly becomes how you book it? The political affiliations of several wrestlers have cast some debate over the booking within the tournament, but you couldn’t argue about the crowd reaction for both men as they began to engage.
In the opening moments, Dieter Jr. gave the crowd some pleasing spots such as clapping his legs in a headlock escape and landing on his feet from a monkey flip. However, Al-Ani managed to knock him off the top to get in some offense including a chinlock that had the crowd rallying behind Jr. This worked as moments later Dieter Jr. came close with a second rope European uppercut. After each man worked a submission – Al-Ani, the ankle lock, Jr., the Axel Dieter Sr. Special – it became a question of Al-Ani’s resilience as he kicked out of a superplex and a Landungsbrucken (neck/leg capture back suplex with bridge). Eventually, Dieter Jr. put Al-Ani away with what looked like a sitout Landungsbrucken that probably has a name that I’m not willing to Google whilst trying to avoid spoilers – sorry! A competitive opener with an obvious winner. It’ll be interesting to see whether the Shotgun title gets put on the line at some point over the weekend.
Rey Horus versus Fenix
In what promised to be an exciting match, the crowd seemed to be more behind Fenix as the two men locked up to exchange a sequence of holds and reversals. It was Horus who went to the air first with a Mexican armdrag; Fenix immediately one-upped him with a ridiculous sequence of bounces on the ropes for his; Horus said ‘hold my beer’ and launched himself over the corner post with a wild dive to wipe out Fenix. The interesting spots continued, although a Fenix rope walk kick whiffed pretty significantly. It was made up for pretty quickly with moonsault to the outside. Horus came closest with an awkward one man Spanish fly, but Fenix picked up the win with a muscle buster driver. A spotfest with some sloppiness, but basically delivered something tonally different for the show.
Shigehiro Irie versus Chris Brookes
One of the few matches that felt like it had a clear likely winner in Irie, it saw two of the most popular wrestlers in the tournament matched up. The contest included a fair bit of humour as Brookes pretended to check Irie’s kneepad when caught trying to jump him, whilst a slap to Irie after a suggested trading of bows earned Brookes a huge pounce. It became all about putting over Irie in the long run as he landed a huge top rope splash, kicked out of the Black Mantis Bomb, escaped the Octopus Hold and nailed the Beast Bomber to win the contest. To kick out of Brookes’ finisher as well as dominate the majority of the match bodes well for Irie’s run in the tournament.
Timothy Thatcher versus Lucky Kid
The breakout match for Kid and one of the best matches from last year’s tournament sees a repeat in the opening round this year. It is another clash of hugely popular wrestlers, especially with the significant UK and Irish contingent in the crowd who like Kid but LOVE Thatcher. Thatcher, coming in with the narrative of wanting to take something for himself considering WALTER and Dieter Jr.’s current direction, absolutely set out to destroy Kid in the early going with gutwrench throws, vicious ground strikes and submissions. Strikes from Kid only served to anger Thatcher, whilst a dropkick off the second rope was turned into a half Boston with relative ease. Every attempt by Kid to get back into the contest saw him cut off by a laser-focused Thatcher, most notably multiple shotgun-sounding slaps by Kid being usurped by one open hand from Thatcher to the jaw. Unfortunately, the dream ended when Kid caught Thatcher in a roll-up for the three count. A huge upset, but one I had called as I feel Thatcher going out has more potential for storyline interest going forward. A brutal squash that saw the underdog survive long enough to win.
Jurn Simmons versus Avalanche (Falls Count Anywhere)
One year after missing Carat with a broken leg, Jurn Simmons entered the first round against his fierce nemesis, Avalanche, in a Falls Count Anywhere match off the back of their ever-so-long No Countout contest from the last show. The two men started quickly with a Massive kick to begin proceedings and a quick back and forth of high powered offense. Naturally, things weren’t going to end until they were brawling around the arena and that’s what they did as they traded plunder shots whilst walking around backstage. One particular nasty was Avalanche getting dropped nuts first across a wooden contraption of some sort. Some kendo stick work by Simmons brought the match back to the ring, where like all good baddies Simmons’ desire to monologue cost him. Avalanche fought back, the match ended up back at ringside where Avalanche hit a Super Dreissker bomb off of a set of railings for the victory. A decent enough brawl with a unique finish, but nothing out of the ordinary. It was worth noting that Avalanche was visibly limping on his way backstage, though that may be to sell the match rather than a legitimate injury.
A video for Superstars of Wrestling 2019 followed which announced KEN SHAMROCK as one of the competitors. Mental.
Pentagon Jr. versus Mark Davis
This was an odd match as the crowd reaction being so behind Pentagon and the general disjointed feeling meant it never really got going. Davis, considering this was supposed to be a match between two hard hitting opponents, didn’t get much audible impact on any of his strikes, whilst an Alphamare Waterslide midway through the contest also looked poor in execution. Pentagon had a Canadian Destroyer attempt blocked which almost led to Close Your Eyes And Count To Fuck after a sliding forearm, but a reversal into the Sacrifice armbreaker gave him the window for another Canadian Destroyer and the victory. Worst match of the round.
Daisuke Sekimoto versus Ilja Dragunov
Always likely to be a hard hitting contest, Sekimoto and Dragunov didn’t disappoint as the import took control following a uranage backbreaker after some early trading. This allowed Sekimoto to take control for a concerted length of time, though Ilja was always willing on more punishment. It took a flurry of strikes and a big knee to get Ilja back into the contest, but even then he endured a sharpshooter, top rope splash, brutal German suplex and a lariat as Sekimoto piled the punishment on top of Dragunov. In the midst of that offensive onslaught, Ilja did land some stiff lariats of his own, but it ended up being a DVD into the corner that eventually broke Sekimoto’s spirit as he went down to the Torpedo Moscow shortly afterwards. Took a bit of time to get going, but the closing stretch was really good.
David Starr versus WALTER
The storyline, if not genuinely, most anticipated match closed out the first night as David Starr tried to put his losing streak against WALTER to bed in the very first round having used his right to choose an opponent and picking the man he’s never beat. As if to signify the urgency, Starr bypassed his own introduction to attack WALTER, raining down blows on the unprepared Austrian. Starr’s exuberance almost immediately cost him as he chopped a ringpost and then missed a suicide dive, colliding with the chairs instead. WALTER bullied Starr for periods of time, though got caught out going to the top and dropped with a belly to belly superplex.
Between the brutalisation by WALTER, Starr managed to fight his way back into the contest, only for WALTER to manage to kick out of the Blackheart Buster and the Product Placement. With the history of these two men, it was always going to need something more than just a finisher. Taking a morally circuitous route, WALTER begged off before unleashing a huge powerbomb, before seemingly tapping moments later on a sleeper only to be apparently addressing his foot being under the rope. As Starr celebrated, WALTER pounced and put him to sleep for the victory. A mixed reaction followed the finish as WALTER received some boos for his underhand tactics, but this was a really strong finish to the opening night. When will Starr beat WALTER, if ever?
Post-show, Starr had an emotive interview with Rico Bushido and Alan in which he claimed victory, as well as stating that WALTER had to use those tactics as he knew Starr had his number. Like Thatcher earlier, I wonder where this leaves Starr for the tournament weekend as a whole.
A good first night with only a couple of false notes, but some huge upsets that leave the tournament wide open. Starr and Thatcher were both viable 16 Carat Gold winners, yet are out in the first round. Night Two will settle who ended up in the Semi-Finals, before Bobby Gunns gets his big title shot against Absolute Andy. Should be another cracker!
